Classifying-cabinet.



C. H. MIDDAUGH.

CLASSIFYING CABINET.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-27. I912. L1$5m3g Patented Apr. 13, 1915 2 SHEETS-SHE 1.

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C. H. IVHDDAUGH.

CLASSIFYING CABINET.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-27, I912.

Patented Apr. 13,1915.

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THE NORRIS PETERS C04. PHOTO-LITHD.. WASHINGTON, D. c.

GLASSIFYING-CABINET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 13, 1915..

Application filed. September 27, 1912. Serial N 0. 722,675.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CARLISLE H. MID- DAUGH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lawrenceville, County of Tioga, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Classifying-Cabinets, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same. j

The object of this invention is to furnish a cabinet in which mail matter and, similar articles maybe classified by placing them in suitable compartments or spaces, and the invention consists in the particular constructions shown and claimed herein for facilitating the separating and the holding of the matter, and the removal of thematter from the assorting compartments when required.

The improvements consist partly in a means for supporting and separating the letters upon shelves in a casing and desighating the spaces between the separating partitions; partly, in means for collecting and holding the material in bulk before it is assorted; partly, in means for sustaining bags in a convenient position to receive the more bulky articles, or those of a certain class; partly, inthe combination with the side walls of a casing, of means for supporting a slatted flexible table so that the same can be moved in and out of the casing and partly, in a compartment-box hinged to a cross-bar in the casing, so as to be swung up on such hinge, and having compartments or pigeon-holes open at the front, so that matter can be inserted in the front ends of the compartments while it is hanging within the casing, or turned upward to a horizontal position. Such box is used when only a small amount of matter requires sorting. The casing of the cabinet is preferably made open at the back so that letters inserted from the front may be withdrawn from the rear side, and operators may also insert or remove mail in the casing from opposite sides at the same time.

The invention will be understood by reference to the annexed drawing, in which Figure 1 is a front view ofthe cabinet composed of three casings; Fig. 2 is a cross section on line 22 in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 isa cross section on line 3 3 in Fig. 1, the view being drawn upon a larger scale than Fig. 1, and broken for want of room upon the drawing; Fig. 4 shows the upper right hand corner of one of the casings upon the same enlarged scale; Fig. 5 is a horizontal section upon the same enlarged scale on line 55 in Fig. 2; Fig. 6 is an end View of a carrier rod and sliding-block with part of a par tition attached thereto; Fig. 7 is a plan of the same parts; and Fig. 8 is a front view of the same parts showing the journal upon one end of the carrier-rod. Fig. 9 shows the label separate; Fig. 10 a modification of the label, and Fig. 11 shows a modification of the block it.

In Fig. 1, A, A and A designate three casings which may be made about thirty inches wide, sixty inches high and ten inches deep, united by hinges (1 The casing A is shown with feet a to rest directly upon the floor, but the casings A and A are provided each with a handle'mupon its outer edge and with a roll n beneath its bottom to rest upon the floor, by which means the two outer casings of the cabinet can be drawn inwardly at any angle that may be desired to make them convenient of access to an operator standing in front of a middle casing A. The upper half of each casing is shown provided with shelves B extended between the sides a of the casing, and about midway of its height a slatted table-top C is supported upon cleats or brackets D. In

casing A, the bracket-cleats D are shown formed with notches e in which rods Z) may rest to'receive mail-bags E which are shown hung upon such rods in Fig. 1.

The brackets are shown in Fig. 2 pivoted upon the sides a of the casing by screws cl and projected forward to support the slats c of the table-top C, before the casing. The table-top is shown in plan in Fig. 5 with a handle 0 upon its front edge to slide it upon the bracket-cleats D, and when slid inward it hangs down behind the brackets, in a pocket 0?, 0 (see Fig. 3). Thetabletop may be removed from the brackets to give access to the mail-bags E hung upon the rods 6, and when neither the rods nor the table are required for use, the brackets may be turned upward upon the screws (Z, as shown by dotted lines 03 in Fig. 2. Inthe bottom of the casing A is shown a tub or drawer F provided with rolls upon the bottom and a jointed handle F so that it may be removed from the casing and drawn from place to place upon the floor to receive and collect the matter to be sorted in the cabinet, and to store the same until sorted. The

drawer is merely indicated in 3-. The

shelves in the casing are adapted to furnish. compartments of variable sizes for sorting matter of greater or less bulk, by employing V movable partitions g'attached to blocks h j constructed to slide upon a carrier-rod 2'.

'-, jTh'e rod has journals 7' (as shown on one end in-Fig. 8), whichjournals are fitted to ro- 1 tate in notcheslc formed-inthe front edges of the sides at, and covered by bars in", one of which, is notched above each of the notches 7c to permitthe; removal of therods by drawing one end forwardly and .the other end I longitudinally. The rotatability of the rod permits all the partitions to be turned outwa'rdly asindicate'd by the dotted lines 9 in Fig. 3, so thatvwhen the matter has been I sortedit may be more readily removedfrom 1 the compartments between the partitions. I

Thefront bottom corner of the block may be rounded, as indicated at g, in Fig. 6, which permits the rotation of the partitions into the 1 forward position shown at g in Fig. 3; but

the rear corner of the block or partition contac't's withthe shelfi'when the partitions are thrown"backwardly, thus holding them in their working position. a

v ,The" shelves B, as shownin Fig. '3, are preferably provided with one or more cleats or stops 1" set at arying distances from the front edge ofthe shelf and'projected above the same at various heights, so thatlshort let-. 7 ters set edgewise upon the shelf may contact 'with the first cleat,.longer ones with the secondby passing it over the first cleat, and so on. Thecleatsmay be'fitted adju'stably to grooves r, r in the sides a, so as to beset in any required positions. v .matic in form (being shown square), so as The rod is pristo turn with the blocks which are fitted 'movably thereto, and the front edges of the blocks are shown in Figs. 7 and 8, formed with guides Z grooved to receive a remov- .ableQlabel 0. o In this construction, the parti and extends over one corner of the label, the

tionis attached to the block by two screws 1 partit'ionsseat upon the block being. recessed Sand the 'upper end of 'one. of. the corners .50v *of thellabel.

notchedso that the front corner of the partition may. fit overra notch 0' in the corner By removing one of the partition-screws marked 7) in Figs. 6 and 7, the front corner 1 of thepartition may be tipped upward to permit the removal and changing of the label when desired. The label may be made as cap 0 coveringthehole for the rod, in

between-others. Thelabels upon the blocks of the various sorts of articles in such spaces.

1 7 Where it is not necessary to lock the'label in f the slot, as shown at g in Fig. 11.

its place upon the block, the block may be made with a dove-tailed slot or groove shown at h in Fig. 10 and aftongue out upon the lower corner of the partition and bent tenfit 1e edges of the groove may be riveted down uponthe edges of the tongue, if desired to hold it therein permanently.

As the cabinet embraces three casings, which by means of the handles m and the rolls n can all be set equi-distant from the operator,it is preferable that the provisions for accommodatingthe sorted matter should in the middle casing vary from those in the a side casings, and I therefore prefer, below the shelves 5 in the middle casing in which the compartments may be varied in size and arrangement by the movable partitions, to

have a box Sof pigeon-holes. or compart-,

ments S between such shelves and the tub in the bottom. of the casing, with the upper frontedge of the box jointed by hinges u to a shelfor bar 2? extended across the casing for such purpose, and providing means to hold the box level or horizontalwhen in use. Such box is adapted for use in that position when only a little matter is to be sorted. A back-board vgis shown secured to the box to cover the rear ends of the pigeon-holes when the box is'set horizontal, abrace o serving to support it in such position, as most convenient for the operator, in sorting. tween the bar or shelf 6 which supports the box S and the table-top 0 shown in the casing A, a setof drawers w is shown in Figs. 1 and 3 adapted tohold a card-index. This attachment adapts the entire device for special use asa filing-cabinet instead of a mere mail-sorting device,

The apparatus furnishes means .in the wheeled tub F for collecting the matter to be sorted, and its storage within the cabinet until sorted; means in the movable partitions 9 for forming compartments of variable size (where the relative quantity of the articles in the matter varies); means in the bag E supported convenient to the operator to receive packages or any particular class of articles; means in the bracket-cleats D for supporting a movable table-top at a convenient height, to be drawn forward to support the matter when sorting, and pushed back into the casing of the cabinet, or projected from its opposite side for use thereat; means in the box S having pigeon-holes S. for sorting small quantities of articles and holding the box either horizontal or vertical while sorting; and finally, means in the drawers w for sustaining a card-index in connection with the cabinet for reference to the'contents of the pigeon-holes. It is well known that matter can be sorted most rapidly when the series of compartments open upon the same level, as in the mail-bags D;

and the box S is therefore preferably set in a horizontal position when in use, and thrown backward into the casing when not required for use.

The cabinet, as shown, furnishes large facilities for filing with adjustable compartments and labels upon the same when desired. As the most important feature of the invention is the adjustability and rotatability of the partitions upon the shelves and the facility of removing the rod with all the partitions from any shelf, it is evident that this feature may be used without employing all the other features of the invention. Where parties have a cabinet which is lack ing in such adjustable partitions, a case may be made resembling the upper half of one of the cases shown herein, which may be hinged to such cabinet to enlarge its classifying capacity. By having the compartments open at the front and back, as shown in the drawing, the mattermay be placed in the compartments from one side and removed from the opposite side; and the cleats r at the edges of the shelves may be omitted in such case if desired. If preferred, means may be provided in the form of a movable skeleton frame, to obstruct the rear sides of the compartments while filling them from the front, and capable of sliding into coincidence with the shelves, where it is desired to remove the matter from the back of the compartments. If the improvements are used in a mere filing cabinet, it would be provided with doors to exclude the dust.

The most essential features of my invention are partitions made movable upon a rod so as to be adjustable lengthwise thereon, and removable when desired with the rod, and the cleats or raised projections at the rear edge of the shelf for setting matter of different lengths flush with the front ends of the compartments. The operator can readily tell when sorting letters in such compartments, whether they should contact with the first or second obstruction upon the back of the shelf, and would acquire the habit of raising them at a suitable distance to contact with the proper obstruction and hold them even with the front of the casing. This greatly facilitates the removal of the papers or letters from the compartments when sorted.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention what is claimed herein is:

1. In a classifying cabinet, the combination, with a casing, of horizontal shelves fitted therein, partitions dividing the space upon the shelves, and a series of adjustable cleats projected upwardly from the shelf at varying heights to stop letters of various tended rotatably over the front portion of each shelf, a series of blocks fitted adjustably upon each rod with a partition attached to each block and the partitions rotatable with the rod between the shelves and proportioned to clear the under sides of the shelves when rotated outwardly therefrom.

3. In a classifying cabinet, the combination, with an upright casing, of means in the upper part for classifying papers, and having a space below the same with rods fitted removably between the sides of the casing at the top of such space and adapted to receive and support bags, by sliding upon the said rods, for receiving letters or papers.

4%. In a classifying cabinet, the combination, with an upright casing having means in the bottom for receiving letters and papers in bulk, of brackets upon the inner sides of the casing above the said letter-receiving means and pro ecting outward from either side of the casing, and a slatted flexible table or disk-top supported movably upon the brackets and adapted to slide in and out of the casing upon the brackets.

5. In a classifying cabinet, the combination, with an upright casing having means in the bottom for receiving letters and papers in bulk, of bracket-bars pivoted upon the inner sides of the casing above the said letter-receiving means and projecting outward from the front side thereof, and a slatted flexible table-top adapted to slide in and out of the casing upon the said brackets.

6. In a classifying cabinet, the combina tion, with an upright casing, of brackets arranged upon the inner side of the same at a suitable height, a slatted flexible table-top movable into and out of the casing upon the said brackets, a cross-pieceextended rigidly between the sides of the casing below the said table-top and a rectangular frame hinged to the front edge of such cross-plece and having a series of compartments open upon the front and back sides and adapted to be turned horizontally at the front of the casing, for access more freely to the compartments.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CARLISLE H. MIDDAUGH.

Witnesses:

GEORGE LA BAR, HARRY D. Pinon.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

